Volvo is awarded another prestigious order from ALC for the Ministry of Defence

ALC, an Amey and Babcock joint venture, are the providers to the Ministry of Defence of conventional mobile plant requirements and has awarded Volvo Construction Equipment a significant order to supply ECM (Excavator Crawler Medium) and EWM (Excavator Wheeled Medium) equipment.

A total of twenty three EC210C's (twenty one tonnes) and twenty eight EW180C's (eighteen tonnes) excavators have been ordered replacing the existing fleet of medium sized crawler and wheeled machines that have reached the end of their service life. According to Andy Clark, Volvo Construction Equipment's special business manager, the deal was a close run affair with another major competitor, but was helped in no uncertain terms by a faultless pre- trial evaluation of the two models at Volvo's facility at Immingham during September 2009. The results from the pre - trials were then confirmed after successful user trials with the Ministry of Defence which took place in June this year.

The complete batch of EC210C's and EW180C's will be built at Volvo's excavator manufacturing facility located at Konz, Germany during the last quarter of 2010 with deliveries and commissioning taking place by the end of Q1 2011. The machines are being supplied with Geith quick fits, black-out lighting capability and other minor modifications specifically for military use. The wheeled machines are also being supplied with an on-board compressor for tyre inflation.

Commenting on the deal, Richard Martin, Optimisation Director for ALC said; "All stakeholders involved in the ECM and EWM projects have been delighted with the performance and quality of the Volvo product throughout the down selection and User Trials. The machines optimise the ALC ethos of introducing leading edge technology to support the military capability and are eagerly awaited by the soldiers."

ALC with its Customer Service Centre based in Bicester has been established for the sole purpose of delivering the C Vehicle capability and to provide a quality service, tailored to the precise needs of the Ministry of Defence tri-service requirements. This includes the use of commercial best practice, the availability of the global industrial infrastructure along with an efficient and flexible operating capability.

The C Vehicle programme is devised to provide a worldwide fleet of construction equipment operated within the Ministry of Defence, typically by the Royal Engineers and Royal Logistic Corps. At the same time ALC embarked on a gradual rationalisation of the MoD's fleet of over 3800 items of mobile equipment down to around 2000 assets using Whole Fleet Management techniques.

This is the second major contract awarded to Volvo Construction Equipment by ALC for the Ministry of Defence and follows the deal for thirty four G930 motor graders that were delivered throughout 2007.

Volvo Construction Equipment Division markets wheeled loaders, articulated haulers, hydraulic excavators, graders, Volvo utility equipment and Volvo road equipment products in the U.K. There are eight strategically placed customer support centres and a network of compact equipment dealers to ensure high quality customer support is maintained throughout the country.

www.volvoce.com